Sick of pump prices? Diesel offers relief

German automakers hold monopoly

Originally published: April 3, 2012

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

If gas prices continue to rise, new car buyers are likely to take a closer look at alternatives, such as diesel. Right now diesel engine passenger vehicles (excluding trucks) sales in Canada are a Ger-man auto maker monopoly, exclusive to Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and BMW. There’s mounting interest from other auto makers, however, to claim a share of this growing sub market.

A Canadian car buyer is far more likely to purchase a diesel engine vehicle than a U.S. car buyer, which makes us a good test market. Indus-try buzz has a diesel engine version of the Chevrolet Cruze in the works and both Mazda and Honda are also likely to jump on the oil burner bandwagon.

A diesel engine is a popular auto option in Europe, where fuel tax laws typically favour the use of diesel fuel.

There are also differences between North American and European emission standards for diesel engine vehicles. In most cases, the use of a urea injection exhaust treatment system is needed to reduce emissions for North America.

The selection of diesel powered new passenger vehicles available in Canada has never been so good. If you’re thinking about making the switch, these five examples certainly deserve a closer look:

The Audi A3 TDI is a front-drive performance-minded luxury hatchback and winner of the 2010 Green Car of the Year Award, the year it was introduced in Canada. It comes with a 2.0-litre turbo-charged diesel engine and a six-speed direct-shift (automatic) gearbox.

A mid-sized utility luxury vehicle with xDrive, an intelligent all-wheel drive system that allows the X5 handle with the steering characteristics of a rear-wheel drive vehicle. A 3.0-litre in-line 6-cylinder turbo-diesel engine is linked with 6-speed automatic transmission.

Freshly redesigned for 2012, the third generation ML350 BlueTEC comes with a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel with improved efficiency and performance that’s mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission and 4MATIC all-wheel drive.

A bigger yet lighter Volkswagen Touareg with a TDI Clean Diesel engine was introduced last year. Its 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine comes with an eight-speed automatic transmission and 4Motion permanent all-wheel drive, it can supply up to 406 lb.-ft of pulling power and boasts a 1,200 km driving range.

Previously known as the Jetta Wag-on, the new Golf Wagon is a traditional station wagon.

The optional 2.0-litre turbo-charged diesel engine is about $2,800 more than its gas engine equivalent. It produces 236 lbs.-ft of torque at just 1,750 rpm and VW claim a driving range of over 1,100 km.